About the Institute

SLJInstitute.net provides multimedia distribution of roughly 1,500 of Dr. Johnson's messages compiled from the 1960s through the 1990s. Working in conjunction with his former congregation at Believers Chapel of Dallas, SLJInstitute.net is also transcribing this collection of lessons.

About Dr. S. Lewis Johnson, Jr.

Dr. S. Lewis Johnson, Jr., (1915-2004) devoted his life to ministering God’s word. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama and grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, graduating from College of Charleston with an A.B. degree in 1937. Shortly thereafter, he began a career in the insurance business in Birmingham.

Although reared in the Presbyterian church and a regular attender, Dr. Johnson relates his conversion experience to the teaching of Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, an early 20th Century Calvinist and pastor of the historic Tenth Street Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. Barnhouse was an early innovator of radio preaching, eventually establishing The Bible Study Hour. These broadcasts, and especially a visit by Barnhouse to Johnson’s church in Birmingham shortly before World War II, led Dr. Johnson to the Lord.

Dr. Johnson eventually received a call to ministry and left the insurance business in 1943. In 1946 he earned his Th.M. degree from Dallas Theological Seminary, followed by a Th.D. in 1949. He would serve as both Professor and Visiting Professor at three universities, including Dallas Theological Seminary and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He has also done extensive graduate work in the United States, Scotland and Switzerland. In addition to his career in theological education, Dr. Johnson spent fifty years in pastoral ministry, concluding it as teaching elder at Believers Chapel of Dallas.